South Africa

South Africa is a country located in the southernmost area of Africa, having a 1,379-mile coastline that touches the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. The country is a multiethnic society with many cultures, including white Afrikaners, indigenous black Bantus, and Indians, many of whom are descended from the indentured laborers that Britain imported in the 1860s. Afrikaans is the first language of most white and black South Africans, while English is a language most commonly used in public and commercial life. South Africa is one of the few countries of Africa never to have had a coup d'etat, having regular elections. However, it had a long history of apartheid, the segregation of Afrikaners and Bantus and the oppression of blacks in the country. The African National Congress formed the Umkhonto wa Sizwe armed group in 1961 to violently resist apartheid, and the struggle would continue until the election of ANC leader Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994. South Africa is one of the most modernized African nations, and it is a center of commerce on the continent. In 2015, South Africa had a population of 54,956,900 people, with 80% being of African descent and the remaining 20% being Afrikaners or Indians.